How to Make a Lyric Video: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creators

Lyric videos are a great way for artists and creators to engage with their audiences between larger projects. If you’re a musician who doesn’t have a whole production team for a music video, you should absolutely share your songs as lyric videos on YouTube to gain discoverability. Lyric videos do not require fancy equipment and lots of effort but can still give your song desirable exposure.

Such videos combine the power of music with visuals, helping viewers connect with the message of the song through animated or stylized text combined with background pictures and videos. For fans, watching and creating such videos is also a way to support their favorite artist; some additional traction can be achieved by spreading their songs further and creating extra engagement around the tracks, especially if it is an indie musician or someone who’s not well-known.

This guide for musicians and fans looking to create a lyric video for their favorite track. will show you various ways to make a lyric video and take you through the process step-by-step.

Why Make a Lyric Video

Making lyric videos is definitely worth your time for several reasons. Before diving into technical aspects, let us look at some of the benefits:

It increases your music visibility. Drop your lyric video before releasing an official video clip. This is perfect for promoting new releases and giving fans something to engage with while generating excitement when it lands on their feed.
It helps to make your music more accessible. Lyric videos make it easier for people to understand song lyrics, which helps us reach a broader audience, including non-native speakers and those with hearing impairments.
It increases audience engagement. It is more likely that viewers will stay engaged if they can follow along with the lyrics. It lets them sing along, connect with the message, and appreciate the subtleties of the song or even organize karaoke evenings with their friends (been there, done that).

But be careful! These videos are primarily for your dedicated fans. They are a group that might appreciate your lyric videos even more than the official ones. However, you might be disappointed if you plan to attract a new audience with such videos. Such videos are more immersive but also more demanding for viewers, so they are not really suited to self-promotion.

Read also: How to Promote Music with YouTube Shorts in 2024: A Guide

Tips to Plan a Perfect Lyric Video

Here are the main details you might need to consider before creating a video.

Prepare Your Song and Lyrics

The first thing you need is the song for which you are making the lyric video. It is important to ensure you have a high-quality audio file (MP3, WAV, etc.). Also, you need to decide whether you want to make a full-song version or a karaoke version. If you do not have the karaoke version, it is easy to make with online tools such as LALAL.AI, which will split the vocal and instrumental parts. It is super simple to do so:

Download a song you want to split onto your computer or smartphone.
Open LALAL.AI.

Log in (optional).
Upload your track in MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, AVI, MP4, MKV, AIFF, or AAC format.
Select “Vocal and Instrumental.”
Start processing and download your results once finished.

And now you have the crisp and clear isolated instrumental version to publish as a karaoke version!

Next, get the full lyrics together. It is essential to double-check the lyrics for accuracy. Some online sources may contain mistakes, and any mistakes could put viewers off.

Choose Your Style and Theme

It is also super important to fit the mood and aesthetics of the song. Lyric videos can be as simple as text on the screen or as complex as fully animated, visually stunning productions. Decide on the overall theme, look, and feel that suits the song. Let your creativity decide, but here are some ideas to inspire you. For example, a minimalist-style video with clean fonts on a plain background will look suitable for emotional or acoustic tracks. Animated text with colorful backgrounds could be a great idea or imagery that matches the energy of an upbeat song.

You can make words appear on screen in sync with the beat, fade in and out, or even "bounce" to the rhythm of the music. Choose a font that is easy to read and suits the tone. A pop song might look good with bold, modern fonts, while a ballad might look best with elegant, script-style fonts.

Decide on Backgrounds and Visual Elements

You can also use images, shapes or animations to convey the story or emotion of the lyrics visually. You can also add the lyrics to stock footage or custom video clips. For example, a song about nature might use scenic outdoor footage.

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Tip: To avoid copyright issues, use photos and videos from royalty-free stocks like Unsplash.

You can use slight animations or motion graphics to make the lyric video more interesting. Actually, you can include the whole storytelling in the video. Here is an example of a lyric video which does precisely that:

In some cases, a more straightforward design and animations may also be suitable and it is absolutely ok to go for a more clear and concise style to concentrate more on lyrics and singing than on the storytelling. Here is a nice example of a video for fans to sing along:

Feel free to experiment with different styles and animations. Have fun experimenting with colors, fonts, and effects to make your lyric video stand out.

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Tip: Adding effects to static pictures may replace the need for inserting the whole videos into your clip

Pay Attention to Small Details

It is crucial to make sure your lyrics stand out against the background, so use high contrast between text and visuals. If you are feeling creative, why not try something a bit more advanced, like kinetic typography (an animation technique mixing motion and text to express ideas). This is where the lyrics move in sync with the rhythm.

Just remember to focus on clarity and timing. People should also be able to read the lyrics easily without being overwhelmed by too many visual effects. Don’t forget to add relevant metadata, such as the song title and artist name, in the description (if applicable), and cross-promote the video on multiple platforms to get the most exposure.

How to Make a Lyric Video on Windows/MacOS

Once your song lyrics are prepared and you have a clear idea of what you want to do in mind, it is time to open your video editor. This could be Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie, or other software – the process is usually quite similar.

Open your video editing software and create a new project.

Just make sure the project settings (resolution and frame rate) match up with the platform you are planning to upload to. For example, 1920x1080 pixels at 30fps is a good choice for YouTube.

Import your music file and drag it onto the timeline.

This will serve as the base for your lyric video.

Create a background layer.

You can add a solid color, gradient, image, or video(s) as the background for your lyrics. Some video editors have their own backgrounds, while others let you add images or videos of your choice.

Select the text or type tool in your video editor.

Type out each line of the lyrics separately.

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Tip: To give yourself more control, it is a good idea to have each line of the lyrics on its own layer or track. This lets you animate, style and sync each line on its own.

Customize the text to match the song’s tone by changing the font, size, colour and style. Pick a font that is easy to read and contrasts well with the background.
Syncronize lyrics and the song.

Scroll through the timeline to the exact point where each line of the song starts, then position the corresponding lyric at that moment.

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Tip: Most video editing platforms have a waveform view in the audio timeline, which is a great help.

Animate the lyrics.

Add animations to make the text appear and disappear smoothly.

Include stock footage or clips (optional).

If you want to make your video more engaging, think about adding stock footage, animations or video clips in the background. Make sure they don’t drown out the lyrics.

Preview the video from start to finish to check for any mistakes in the lyric syncing, text animations, or timing.

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Tip: Try to pause the video on each line to proofread it: small mistakes are easy to make and hard to notice!

Choose the proper export settings and render your video.

How to Make a Lyric Video on Your Phone

You might find it easier to create a lyrics video on your smartphone. It is definitely more convenient to do it on the go or if your PC is not powerful enough. You can also preview the result right on your device screen to see how it will look for phone users, and there is no need to transfer the files from one gadget to another. Creating a lyric video on your phone has never been easier thanks to powerful mobile video editing apps like CapCut or InShot. The process is very similar to the PC:

Open your video editor and create a new project.
Import your song. Just choose the audio track and add it to your timeline. Most apps will let you import music straight from your phone’s storage.
Choose your video resolution based on where you're uploading it. Most people use 1920x1080 (landscape) for YouTube and 1080x1920 (vertical) for Instagram or TikTok.
Import or create your background. Most apps let you set a plain background colour or use images and videos. You could, for example, use a static colour for a minimalist look or a dynamic video loop. If you have a custom background (like a video or image), import it and set it as the base layer.
Select the Text Tool. Every video editing app will have a text option. Once you’ve done that, you can start adding your lyrics.

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Tip: It could be a nice idea to use several matching fonts in your video, for example, for mood changes or to highlight particular lines in the song.

Type each line separately. This will help us to keep everything in sync better if you add each line of lyrics individually rather than pasting the entire song.
Customize text style. Adjust the font, color, and size of the text to fit the vibe of the song.

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Tip: Mind the text and background contrast! The text must be easily readable to a viewer. It might be a great idea to ask someone for their opinion on the color choice.

Adjust the timing and add effects. Put each lyric in the right place so it comes up when it is sung. Lots of apps let you change the start and end times for each text layer or entry, so you can make the lyrics fade in and out or slide onto the screen at the right moment.
Preview the video and export it onto your device’s storage. Make sure you get the timing, font size and positioning of the text just right to make sure everything looks polished. Make sure you export in the highest quality your phone allows. For social platforms, 1080p resolution is usually enough.

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Tip: Copy and paste your text from a document like Google Docs, which proofreads it for you. This way, you have fewer chances to make mistakes.

And now it is ready to post on your social media! Try to see how the views grow as creating a lyric video is a great way to promote an account, connect with your audience and make your music more engaging, accessible and visually immersive.